As semi-experienced Piranas player who can take their mono sets into the 1300e+ range with ease, I figured their style would bolster my favourite aspect of the Piranas clan: their pill manipulation.

However, I found (with the exception of the wonderful Deea), that even though the pill return on Vortex loss was a threat, most of the time the pill return was just nowhere near enough to counter the more popular clans such as Rescue and (especially) All Stars.

I'm used to playing the crafty tactics with Piranas already, so I had a decent idea about how to play my vortex to maximise potential, but no matter how well I played them they were just overpowered by sheer strength.

Often I'd be in a position where I'd have a pill advantage, but the pillz I has still weren't enough versus -2 power et al.

Perhaps i didn't invest enough time in the clan, perhaps I really need to rethink my strategy... however, I'm not convinced the clan are ever going to do well in Elo. Much like Freaks and Jungo, they seem to be a clan who will suit very specific playstyles and will be adored by their fans, but won't have the necessary kick to compete in 1300e+

Haven't played mono with em because I only have 3 but in a half deck with piranas and Eklore they've been working alright.

Deea is a good versatile card, 16 base attack and 5 dmg for 3 stars with a built in safety net? works fine in a split too. I've noticed ppl tend to underestimate/underbid against Sunder as an opener quite often dunno why but I'll take the 1/2 life , Neloe is kinda blah but a decently safe pill return or surprise. The rest haven't used but that revenge guy and the poisoner look useful

Either way its pretty hard to compare to established clans when they only have 8 cards so far... I wouldn't count em out till we find out what else they have to offer

I agree with you shadow. Unless they become a clan like Jungo, with high powered cards and power manip abilities, they wont get very far at all. I played mono Piranas with Eklore at ease this week, but I struggled on every match with my Vortex and Piranas preset.

the vortex 2-3 stars are however great cyb lhia is a great bluffer, neloe good to get an extra pill, deea overall great with the attack manip and 5 dmg. c blade and sunder are a matter of taste but both not bad. i like c blade a bit better because he is great against roots/gheist.

I'm not the best player. I'm mainly a Nightmare/Gheist player (the best I've had with Nightmare/Gheist half deck is ~1350e). I've tried to get something going with Fang Pi Clang, it's tough for me, and I think I've gotten close to 1200e using FPC in a half-deck.

I haven't used Vortex myself, but I have faced many of them, and have to agree with Shadowcouncil. Although the non-battle helping bonus applies to clans like Freaks, Jungo, etc., but (I was using La Junta, GHEIST, and Roots/Nightmare this week) their pill gain-back was simply not enough to contend with most cards out right now.

Their current cards are at a loss to effectively counter the powerhouses that make up the metagame of ELO. Even with pill regain they were just 1-3 pills up in pill count due to my cards being able to use less pills to win. Sure, you can pill and get it back, but this is less effective than simply 0-pilling. Or, you can overpill to win against cards from other clans and be severely down in pillz. Their bonus is a safety net, but not just not something to be relied on. This is the optimal week for some Vortex action (since most of the very good cards from very good clans are banned) yet they're not too good even now.

The thing is, most clans would be pretty bad if they had 10 cards to pick from. They have only one 8-powered card as of yet and no SoA/SoB whatsoever, which I hope would change pretty soon. Then, they'll be an excellent clan. Until then (which, I hope, is one week), however, they'll have to suffer the fates of Freaks.

Kind of off topic, but I find Jungo powerful although I don't use them myself. Every time I get within a battle or two of finally getting 1400+ ELO, Jungo strikes me down every time.

Like many others say, eight cards isn't much to test. So they'll pretty meh until they recieve more reinforcements. Not that that stops us from making comments :3

I like the idea of the clan and I like having "safe" tactics. I never like guessing and end up having my match go awry because I lost out by so few pillz. That's what I like about these guys. I LOVE SAFENESS.

Plus these guys look like they'll be fun with Skeelz, enough mind effing to where I could probably make the most obvious of obvious plays and get away scott free. I'd probably develop even more of a hatred for any clan that actually helps them win a round directly. But I don't care, anyone who plays with a clan that has a bonus that affects their stats or has SoA or SoB doesn't have any skills and just plays to win. If you can't tell, that was sarcasm.

And I want a Hawkins Noel clone, he'd be fun. Or, if I wanted to be broken, a Smokey Cr clone. And just for fun, give them a Kolos. No one would complain about him, at all, ever.

And I'm still waiting for a homicidal robot. No, srsly. I want rail guns on his arms and a rocket launcher on his chest. Do it NAO.

Like everyone has mentioned, 8 cards makes the deck playable as a mono but however they just are not at its full potential. I have played them in a half deck and mono and personally as of now piranas are just better then vortex.

When vortex get more cards I can see them at there full potential as a mono deck w/ eklore and morphun(when playable). You can gain great pill advantage w/ eklore+vortex. As a half deck they are good by combining them w/ heavily aggressive decks.

The major flaw w/ vortex imo is the fact that they basically get shut down by SOB. Because of this reason I prefer to play Piranas at the moment. So w/ this being said, vortex need more crazy broken abilities or protection of bonus abilities w/ high stats.

As it stands there are only 4 vortex cards who will see much play at the moment cyb lhia for the bluffing due to poison, neloe for the damage reduction and extra pill, lehrg because his revenge is very helpful for bringing people to his level and 6 damage is high enough for a bluff and finally deea for the attack manipulation. The other card i see getting play at a later date is oflgn because he is a scary bluff with the life per damage and safety net bonus

I played a Roots/Vortex deck with C Blade, Noloe, Lehrg, and Sunder. It worked alright, but topped off around 1200. I've found that they work well in the third round with their ability to give you either round 3 or 4. Too fragile as of now to deal with defense I've found. DR and SoA are pretty harmful against the clan, and C Blade doesn't do very well to scare off the SoA. If he was Stop: +2 damage instead of +2 power I think he would be much more threatening.

For me though, I think Vortex needs a SoA or SoB card before I start playing them seriously.